Booker T is preaching patience when it comes to Karrion Kross on the main roster.
On July 19, Kross, the undefeated in 18-months NXT Champion, made his Monday Night Raw debut, losing to Jeff Hardy in under two minutes. Following the result, fans expressed their disappointment with the result online, with Fightful Select even reporting frustration and shock backstage over the roll-up defeat.
On a recent episode of his The Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T shared his perspective on the situation, saying that the audience needs to focus on the story being told and not a single decision. He added the following:
"I had heard that same thing as far as the internet went ablaze because Karrion Kross lost his first match. I'm like, 'You know, guys, it's not about the match (most of the time). It's about the story.' Karrion Kross is a guy, he's the NXT Champion, right? He's undefeated now in NXT. The one thing you guys got to realize is that it's still NXT. Who sent him to Monday Night Raw? Who felt like it was a good time to make a debut? I would think, from a storyline perspective, it would have been William Regal. I don't know if you guys saw, Karrion Kross beat the hell out of William Regal, now he's got an angle with Samoa Joe. Everything for me, it makes a whole lot of sense. Losing to Jeff Hardy in a match that everybody in the world thought that Karrion Kross, making his debut is a match that he is supposed to win. Okay, but Jeff Hardy is still a veteran to the game. Jeff Hardy didn't go out there and beat him with the whisper in the wind, either. Jeff Hardy stole a match from Karrion Kross. For me, when I would work, let's say, for instance, I would take a babyface and push him to the turnbuckle. Just say I push him to the turnbuckle and then I would give him a clean break. I would hold my hands as wide as I possibly can and look at the babyface right in his face and then I'd turn my back on the babyface and walk to the middle of the ring. Now, this is a contest. The babyface he shouldn't slap me or hit me in the back, okay. That would make him look a certain way. When we're doing this, we're doing it for a reason. When they did that, it was all for a reason. You got to understand what the reason is as opposed to just trying to analyze it and think you know exactly the way it should have went because you didn't get what you thought you should have got in that moment."
Noticeably absent on Raw was Scarlett Bordeaux, who has been a key part of Kross' presentation. Booker T doesn't want people to jump to conclusions based on one appearance, noting that they might still go that route. That said, he believes wrestling shouldn't be booked with instant gratification in mind or else you'll always be backing yourself into a corner.
"Well, the thing is, we don't know that we're not going to go that route," he began by saying. "We don't know that. We just know that Karrion Kross showed up on Monday Night Raw and lost. Then, went back to NXT and got into an angle with Samoa Joe. We don't know if Karrion Kross is going to be back next week, and probably not, and when he does come back, we don't know if he's going to be with Scarlett or not. So, I just think people jump the gun so much because, it's like, you know, instant coffee. They want it right now. They want instant gratification and I just don't think you can book the wrestling business around what the fans want on any given night or anything like that because you'll be booking yourself into a corner every week. You just can't do it."
It was recently reported that the August 3 episode of NXT (taped on Wednesday, July 21), featured Karrion Kross cutting an in-ring promo on Samoa Joe, which according to multiple fans in attendance, had to be re-shot due to loud chants of "Hardy" echoing through the Capitol Wrestling Center.
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